


Nightmares

by Alunala



Category: Zero Escape (Video Games)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fever, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Hugs, Hurt/Comfort, Nightmares, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Young Akane Kurashiki, Young Aoi Kurashiki
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-21
Updated: 2020-01-21
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:48:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22353610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alunala/pseuds/Alunala
Summary: Young Akane has a nightmare. Aoi comforts her in the way that he knows how.
Kudos: 7





	Nightmares

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this after having this plot bunny for a long time

His sleep was broken with a scream. Normally, when someone is woken up by the scream of another person, their first reaction is fear, but for Aoi, it’s anger.  _ Anger towards the person who did this to her.  _

Akane, his younger sister, had frequent nightmares. So did Aoi. The difference between him and his sister was that he was able to manage them without screaming. She wasn’t. Aoi didn’t feel any resentment towards his sister for interrupting his sleep. Instead, he only felt pity. Akane had burnt to death. He had only witnessed her incineration. Thankfully, that didn’t happen in this timeline. As a consequence, both him and his sister had to plan out another nonary game to prevent her from vanishing from this timeline.

He didn’t like thinking about the future. The plan could easily fail if Junpei didn’t choose the right doors. It was funny how the selection of doors lead to Akane (and to a lesser extent, himself) living or dying.

The second nonary game wouldn’t be a scientific experiment. It would be a matter of life or death.

Aoi nearly slaps himself as he listens to his sister sob. He had been so caught up in the plans for the future that he had neglected his sister. While he could ignore her, doing so was probably the worst idea he had ever had. Akane needed him right now.

Slowly, he creeps into Akane’s room. The young girl was sitting up in her bed, clenching the blankets as she sobbed into the blanket. The blanket was soaked with tears and sweat, and the girl was the palest he had ever seen her. Not only was she crying, but she was hyperventilating and coughing as well. Aoi recognized the signs as a panic attack “Akane,” he whispers, sitting down beside her on the bed and placing a gentle hand on her back.

Her purple eyes are filled with tears as she looked at him, coughing. Aoi wraps his arms around her and places the girl on his lap, something he always did when she had a nightmare. His hands could feel the quick rising and falling of her chest. He had no doubt that her nightmare was about the nonary games. “Aoi,” she coughs, grabbing into his shirt, breathing rapidly.

“Shhh,” he comforts her, “I’m here now. You’re in our apartment. We’re sitting in your bed.”

Akane struggles to breathe and chokes as she cries into Aoi’s shoulder, “I-I’m sorry f-for waking y-you up,” she cries. Aoi strokes her hair comfortingly, slowly working his fingers through the tangles that accumulated over the night. 

“You had a really bad nightmare, it’s a natural reaction to scream,” Aoi says, pulling his sister closer to him. The two of them were orphaned at a really young age and from a young age, Aoi took on the responsibility of caring for his sister. He had to take on odd jobs and often had to skip meals in order to let his sister eat.

_ After the nonary games, Aoi knew something was wrong when both him and Akane couldn’t get through a night without having nightmares. Aoi dropped out of high school and forced himself to get a job working at a grocery store to save up money so Akane could see a therapist. He had looked up his symptoms several times on the internet and had received the same results every time; Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.  _

_ This was confirmed when Akane’s therapist had given him the results of their evaluation. Normally, it was only the legal guardian that could access the results, but after both Aoi and Akane convinced her that he was her legal guardian, the therapist had disclosed the results to him.  _

_ Akane had Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. _

His sister continued to cry into his shoulder, but the cries didn’t die down as Aoi hoped they would. Instead, they progressively got louder. Aoi recognizes these signs as a flashback and strokes Akane’s hair, trying to calm the girl down. 

Then he places a hand on her forehead. It’s burning up.  _ No wonder she’s panicking,  _ Aoi thinks to himself,  _ Her fever’s reminding her of burning to death in another timeline.  _

“It’s so hot,” Akane whimpers, her voice hoarse and her throat slick with tears, “I don’t feel good.”

Aoi removes the blankets from the two of them and tries to set her down. He easily removes the blankets, but Akane refuses to let Aoi let her go. Her arms wrap around him tighter and Aoi feels her grab onto him tighter, never wanting him to let her go, “I’m going to throw up-” she whimpers.

Acting fast, Aoi picks her up and carries her to the bathroom and sets her down by the toilet. He grabs a face cloth and runs it under cool water, placing it against her forehead to hopefully cool her fever down. “Does this feel okay?” he asks. Thankfully, the girl wasn’t crying as hard anymore.

Akane nods, trying not to throw up

The two siblings stay like that for ten minutes. Akane slowly began to feel better. Her tears had stopped and the colour in her face began to return. “Do you feel okay enough to walk?” Aoi asks. He places a hand against her forehead and it feels like it’s back to normal. 

“Yes,” Akane whispers, slowly getting up. 

Aoi gives his sister a smile and helps her to the feet. “Would you like a glass of warm milk?” He asks.

Akane’s eyes lit up and she nods, “Yes, please.”

He first takes Akane to her bedroom and helps her out of her sweat-stained pajamas. He doesn’t bother with the bedding because he knows that Akane will end up sleeping in his bed tonight, as that usually happens when she has a nightmare. “Can I sleep in your bed tonight?” Akane asks.

Aoi nods, “Of course you can,” he says as he takes her to his bedroom and sits her down on his bed. “I’ll be back in a minute,” He says, heading down to the kitchen and pouring milk into a mug and heating it up in the microwave. A glass of warm milk always helped his sister sleep after a nightmare. He makes one for himself as well, figuring that he might as well get some more sleep.

A glass of warm milk later, Aoi began to grow sleepy. Judging by Akane’s yawning, so was his sister. “I think it’s about time that we went to bed,” he says. Before Akane closes her eyes, Aoi checks her forehead, making sure that her fever is gone. He smiles when he realizes that it is gone.

“Get some sleep now, okay?” He says.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  



End file.
